Discussion, Insights, and Implications

Abstract

The delineation of a theory of the boundary-spanning marketing organization (MOR theory) and the insights gleaned from 31 organization theories for its existence, activities, and viability offer a broad understanding of the boundaries of marketing at the organizational level. With a few exceptions (e.g., resource-based view, network theory), each theory is given a relatively equal importance weighting. Future studies on the marketing organization should consider developing a weighted schema of relevant theories (cf. Miner 2003). For the purpose of this SpringerBrief, an extension and more elaborate version of the Hult (2011b) article in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the cross-fertilization of organization theories clustered into four logical themes creates unique implications that can help advance work on the marketing organization. In elaborating on these implications, a focus on the intellectual clusters of strategic marketing resources, marketing leadership, and decision-making, network alliances and collaborations, and the domestic and global marketplace will continue as the structural roadmap for the discussion.